On the keel she is 195 feet long, between perpendiculars on deck 215, and over
all 225; her extreme breadth of beam is 41½ feet, and depth 22½,
including 8 feet height of between decks. In model she differs widely from any
clipper which we have inspected. The rise and form of her floor are designed
to obtain the greatest possible buoyancy consistent with stability and
weatherly qualities. Her lines, too, have been formed upon the principle that
when sailing by the wind, the pressure aloft will incline her, and to overcome
the consequent angular resistance, is of the elements in her model. But
whether sailing, inclined to the plane of the horizon, or at right angles to
it, her lines have been calculated for both, so that she is expected to float
more buoyantly and pass more easily through the water than any other clipper
that has yet been built. At the load displacement line, she is sharper than
any other clipper, and her lines, for twenty feet from the cutwater, are
almost straight, but aft they swell into the convex, and blend beautifully
with her fullness amidships. Her greatest breadth of beam is at the centre of
her loadline, and her lines aft are decidedly convex. She is fuller aft than
forward, upon the principle that, when passing rapidly through the water, she
will be liable to settle aft, hence the fullness of the lines to buoy her up;
and also, that the pressure of the water, as it closes aft, will actually
force her ahead, and leave her without a ripple. Her model above is also
designed with special reference to overcoming atmospheric pressure; hence she
has little if any flare to the bow, (which is angular in its outline to the
rail), low bulwarks,and a flush deck. Her bow is long, very sharp, and rises
grandly in its sheer; and the cutwater isjust inclined enough to make her a
perfect picture forward. She has a large gilded eagle on the wing, for a head,
and it forms the best and most beautiful head that we have yet seen upon any
clipper. The ends of her catheads are ornamented with gilded carved work;
otherwise she is smack-smooth forward.

She has about three feet sheer, and sufficient swell or rounding of sides,
to preserve the harmony of her lines, and she rises forward and aft with such
easy grace, that even on the line of the planksheer, the eye cannot detect any
wavering in its sweep. Her stern is slightly elliptical, inclined aft, and is
formed from the line of the planksheer, the moulding of which and the strake
below, form its base. It is very light, beautiful inoutline, and tastefully
ornamented.

. . .

So many beautiful clipper ships could be found in the early fifties amongst
the shipping which lined the docks of New York's East River waterfront, that
we will take a glance at some of the points of contrast between them and the
old fashioned clumsy craft that they superseded.

Beginning forward, as is a sailor's bounded duty, let us take a look at the
head gear. In the first place, the modern bowsprit steeves very much less than
the old one. By this means the leverage of the head sails is greatly
increased, and the ship looks better. It is not quite so comfortable, however,
in reefing or furling the head sails. Next, the old ship always carried a
heavy, awkward spritsail-yard, of no earthly use but to strike porpoises from,
and to hang clothes upon to dry. This is now entirely dispensed with. A great,
two-legged martingale also encumbered the head gear, while now a small
delicate, single one is the style. The bobstays, bowsprit, shrouds, and other
rigging in that vicinity were of heavy rope; now they are of chain or iron
rods, equisitely neat and of ample strength, and when properly set up require
no lifting for years.

Next noteworthy is the ground tackling. Instead of the neat chain now
shackled to the ring on an iron-stocked anchor, there was a hard, harsh,
hempen cable, bent on with all sorts of seizings to a great wooden stocked
anchor. It was no child's play, in old times, to handle a ship's ground
tackling. To "overhaul a range of cable" in cold weather, was a forenoon's
job; now it is done in a few minutes. To heave it in of a cold day; and stow
it away in the cable tier, was positively the very worst work a crew cound do.
Now, a few minutes at the new-fashioned windlass and the anchor is apeak, and
the cable let run into the chain boxes without delay. The old-fashioned ground
tackling was not a great deal better in hot weather, though one's fingers did
not get quite so benumbed in handling it. But even then it was a hard
dispensation, for the worms and barnacles of the tropics and other warm
latitudes would form colonies on the hemp cable; and it was Jack's Sunday
privilege to give it a scrubbing, by just dropping another anchor under foot
and heaving in the old one. Jack's theology obliged him to make an addition to
a certain precept of the Decalogue, that read in this wise - "Six days shalt
thou work and do all you are able, on the seventh heave up and scrub the
cable".

In old times ships had no bulwarks forward of the fore rigging. It was all
open there, why, heaven only knows. Now the bulwarks are much higher than the
tallest man's head, and solid all around forming a capital breakwater.

A few feet further aft we come to the windlass, and here is a wonderful
improvement. The old windlass was merely a large round piece of wood, with
holes in it for handspikes, and a few iron pauls. It had no leverage power
except that derived from the arm of the handspike. At this miserable machine
the sailors had to heave and heave until they were exhausted, and even then
they were frequently unable to lift the anchor. The modern windlass is an
instrumental of great power, with brakes like those of a fire engine, by a few
strokes of which the most firmly embedded anchor is lefted from its oosy bed.

Still passing towards the stern of the ship, the long-boat meets the eye.
Formerly it was stowed directly over the main hatchway, requiring it to be
removed before the cargo could be got at. Now it sits in its chocks from one
voyage end to another, well housed over.

The Bald Eagle had a small top-gallant forecastle; and abaft the
foremast a house 36 feet long by 8 wide. Its forward division contained a
metallic life boat, placed on rollers, and the sides of the house were made to
unship, so that the boat could be taken out upon either side of the deck, when
required.

The galley too, is a different affair from that of olden times. It is more
like a well-appointed kitchen than a galley. Many is the gale of wind in which
the "doctor" (as the cook, even in those degenerated times was called) could
not boil water enough in the old galley to mix with grog, what the crew felt
in duty bound to drink to "Sweethearts and Wives" on Saturday nights. When the
fires are put out in the galley of a modern built ship, it will be because she
has taken a sudden freak to pay Davy Jones a visit in that unexplored locker
of his.

On the quarter-deck the most important improvement is the steering
apparatus; and very great is the dept due to mechancis on shore for the
invention and perfection of the new wheel; it is now easy work to steer the
largest ship, even by one man, and with accuracy too; but in old times it took
two men when scudding, to keep the ship within an average of three or four
points of her course. The rudder is now fastened to the stern-post with great
strength and neatness, and cannot by any possibility get unshipped by
accident.

Now let us cast our eyes aloft. Those iron trusses first attract attention.
How freely the lower yard swing upon them; requiring no overhauling for stays,
as did the old, greasy, creaking rope truss. Chain has taken the place of rope
for topsail ties, topsail and top-gallant sheets, and iron rods for futtock
shrouds. What with the large use of iron where rope was formerly used, and the
superior manner in which shore riggers do their work, there is very much less
work to be done on the rigging while at sea than of old. A ship is also
handled easier in consequence.

It is curious to observe the difference in the management of matters on the
day of sailing now as compared with olden times. Then the vessel hauled into
"the stream", and anchored there, to remain a day or tow, to see that
everything was all right, that nothing was forgotten; as well as to get the
crew sober. When the captain found everything right, the crew tolerably sober,
and the wind fair and the weather settled, he would loose his foretopsail as a
signal to the pilot that he was ready to go sea. Whereupon a staunch,
broad-beam and weather-beaten pilot would come on board and take the ship out.
Now a steam tug fastens itself to the ship's side, and she goes to sea from
her berth at the wharf. It would be losing too much time to sober the crew at
anchor.